Sept. 5, 2008
ATHENS, Ga. -
Allison Whitworth made a career-high 13 saves but a defensive breakdown in the last 10 minutes doomed the Auburn soccer team as it dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 6 Stanford on Friday afternoon at the Turner Soccer Complex in Athens, Ga.
"We played a great first half. We knew Stanford was going to start fast and goal number one was to not let them score in the first 10 minutes and we did a great job of that," Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. "(Allison) Whitworth played amazingly and we got to halftime zero-zero, which we felt we could build on, which we did."
Stanford (4-0-0) dominated possession in the first 45 minutes and held Auburn without a good scoring chance and just one shot while taking nine shots of its own, including seven on frame.
Whitworth was busy between the pipes in the first half, making six saves but Julie King may have had the biggest save of the half for Auburn as she stopped a Morgan Redman shot from inside the six at 37:45 after the Stanford attack had gotten Whitworth to commit to one side of the goal before swinging it around for a shot to the opposite post.
Stanford's Lindsay Taylor finished the half with three of the Cardinal's seven shots on frame while Christen Press had two, keeping Whitworth active as she made diving saves to both her left and right as well as a leaping save that was headed upper 90.
After playing 59 minutes of scoreless soccer Stanford lit up the scoreboard as Press controlled the ball in the box after putting it into a pair of Auburn defenders legs and went one-on-one with Whitworth and beat the keeper to put Stanford up 1-0 at 59:36.
Auburn (2-3-0) had a couple of solid chances to net the equalizer as Kori Hoelscher headed a Stephanie Fransoso corner kick at the 68:30 mark just over the crossbar and Rebecca Howell banged one off the opposite post from 25 yards out at 75:30 but Auburn continued to come up empty, finishing the match with just three shots.
Stanford's Taylor put the Cardinal up 2-0 at 80:01 when she scored following a free kick and then Morgan Redman iced the game just over a minute later (81:09).
"We played a great 80 minutes but after the second goal we just crumbled and that's not typical of Auburn soccer. To give up two goals in the last 10 minutes is unacceptable and that's something we need to fix from a mentality standpoint," Hoppa said. "On the positive side for 80 minutes we played toe-to-toe with the number six team in the country."
Auburn will remain in Athens for its next match when it battles No. 5 Virginia at 11 am ET.